Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers

Thursday, 7 March 2013

Too smart

Well, That backfired. I was actually just there to pick Jensen up this afternoon, but he wanted to show me some artwork in his tray. While we were there looking, another parent was on the other side of the drawers talking to the teacher. I was looking at Jensen's work, the teacher hands me a piece of paper to look at while she continues to talk to the other parent. ( I actually kind of liked the way she did that, as that way she still got to talk to the other parent, as well as "talking" to me ) The paper was the benchmark reading test. Last week (possibly the week before), Jensen was benchmarked, and they found that he breezed through Reading Level 5. I had been told that she would have to try Level 8.

Well, the piece of paper was the result of the level 8 Benchmark. There were 11 'mistakes' (or the words that Jensen had trouble with). 11 mistakes is apparently less than 10%, so the teacher tells me "I'll just have to try him on Level 10". I had to laugh at the way she says "I'll just have to ..." Made it sound like try again doing something unpleasant. I know she didn't mean it like that. I did mention to her about how I was confused and concerned about her comment of "such a thing as too smart". She laughed. There's nothing to be worried about. She mentioned that it is her 1st year teaching, and they "don't teach you how to talk to the parents!"

I don't mind, I like hearing about how he's going from her. She seems be genuinely excited for Jensen.

There are one or two other boys not far behind Jensen's 'level'. One boy has also seen what Jensen can do and is trying to do it himself.

Jensen has show and tell on Monday / Tuesday. He's the first one for the class to do show and tell. I thought that because we are near the top of the class roll, that that would be why he's first. But he's first so he can set the example for the other kids on how to present show and tell. I am both excited and nervous for him... for the same reason - that he is the example.